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by markiboss (purplelly)



Series: Wires and Rods [3]
Category: jacksepticeye, markiplier - Fandom
Genre: M/M, robot engineer!mark, robot!jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-15 02:02:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4588827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplelly/pseuds/markiboss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Sooo here's the last part that I managed to write. There might be an epilogue or something, if i decide to write it. anyway, this is what i did write, and I had a lot of fun with it. I hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

> Sooo here's the last part that I managed to write. There might be an epilogue or something, if i decide to write it. anyway, this is what i did write, and I had a lot of fun with it. I hope you enjoy!

_“Ready? I’ll count down,” Mark said. “One….Two….” His finger hovers over the button. “...Three.” He pushes down._

He notices a change immediately. Jack’s hand were initially clutching the table, but now they loosened. His posture is still the same, but stiff, like a manikin.

Mark instantly feels worried. He suddenly has a longing to turn him back on, to have his company again. That somehow powering him down is like killing him.

He shakes those thoughts away, reminding himself Jack is fine. He moves his hands up to the robot’s cranium before he could change his mind about this.

It didn’t take long to find the crevice in the skin. It did take longer to fully open the top of the head, however. Something strong kept the cranium attached to the rest of the head. Mark suspected magnets.

When Mark did get it open, he almost expected an actual human brain. But then he had to take a moment to gawk at what he _did_ see.

Very unlike the rich couple’s robot, empty headed in the literal sense, Jack’s head was _filled_. Wires and lights, chips and rods, he watched an electric pulse travel down a metal thread. It was so complicated, so advanced, it took his breath away.

There was a storage unit, not unlike the previous robot in his shop, but this wasn’t a dull grey box, it was a glass dome of some sort. Mark has never seen energy in it’s physical form, but if there was a way to, this was it. Pulses of bright green-colored energy throbbed in and out of the dome, powering the systems that must be kept going even when shut down. Mark almost went to touch the dome, but decided against it.

What caught his eye next was certainly no less amazing. A series of chips, more than needed to store memories, lined up in an orderly fashion, perfectly intact. At first, Mark did think they were memory chips, but that wouldn’t make sense since Jack’s memories aren’t functioning properly. Then he pulled a chip out.

He expected the usual, a memory chip, but that’s not quite what he got. Instead, it was a similar size to the memory chips, but had a piece of tape wrapped around the edge with the word ‘happy’ written on it in marker.

Mark raised an eyebrow. He slotted the chip back in place and picked out another one. This one was similar to the previous, except the word on it was ‘anger’.

Emotions, Mark realized. These chips were Jack’s emotions. Mark has never heard of such a thing; emotions weren’t simply downloaded.

He replaced the anger and pulled out another, then another. All were of different emotions:

_Sadness_

_Disappointment_

_Curiosity_

_Confusion_

_Joy_

_Love_ (He held that one a bit longer than the others, before hurriedly snapping it back in place.)

And many, many more. Mark couldn’t stop prying each one out and seeing what Jack was seemingly capable of feeling. These were all emotions humans have only dreamed of making AI capable of, the basics of human’s complicated feelings. But there were even more that Mark wouldn’t have considered:

_Grief_

_Disgust_

_Gratitude_

_Attraction_

Certainly not things  _he_ would have included, but it was interesting they even _were_ included. Everything about this was interesting - mind blowing.

The chips were slotted into stories, one on top of the other. Many chips could fit into one, and there were just as much on the second story, and so on. There were three in total, making a huge range of emotions that Jack must be able to feel.

After Mark removed the third, final story, he expected to find another, but instead stumbled upon a hidden compartment. In the compartment was disk.

He picked it up, blowing the dust off that had gathered over time, and tried to find any words scribbled on it. It was wordless, however, and Mark made a mental note to watch whatever is on it later.

He searched through the cords and rods and everything in Jack’s head until he finally found where the memory chips were stored. He went to take out all the chips in there, when he realized there was only one chip. The only one in active use.

There should be more. They were supposed to be broken, not completely missing.

Mark did a once-over through the artificial brain again, even back in the secret compartment, but there were no other chips. They were taken out by someone.

Mark leaned on the table, thinking hard about all this. He watched a rhythmic pulse of energy run across a rod as his thoughts wandered.

His eyes fell on the disk, still on the table. Surely that would hold all the answers? It must have been put there by Sean McLoughlin. No one else could have.

Sighing heavily, Mark replaced the empty slots in Jack’s memory with new memory chips. He couldn’t live on one chip forever.

He watched the dome for a moment, the energy dancing behind the glass, before closing the lid of Jack’s head.

Mark almost felt compelled to at least search some more, maybe for a hidden compartment somewhere else in Jack's body, for the missing memory chips. He knows how much Jack was looking forward to remembering where Sean had went, and now he knows how Jack will feel when he tells him what he found.

Biting his lip, he presses the button on the back of Jack's neck.

After a moment, Mark watches as Jack becomes alive again, his eyes fluttering open and his chest beginning to move. Mark sees Jack blink, once, twice, before his expression changes to confusion.

"I don't... Feel any different?" Jack stated. "I don't remember anything."

"Yeah...about that," Mark started, and Jack looked worried.

"I couldn't find your memory chips," Mark said. "They were all gone, purposely taken out."

"What-what do you mean?" Jack asked. "Why?"

"I don't know," Mark replied. His eyes fell on the disk again. "But I think we can find out." He picked up the disk, and Jack's eyes followed his movements.

"What's that?" Jack asked.

"I found this in your head," Mark answered. "I feel like Sean must have put it there."

"What's on it?" Jack asked, eyeing the disk.

"That's what we're going to find out," Mark replied, then gestured for Jack to follow him.

Mark led them to the back room of the repair shop. He called it his office, but most of the time non-work things took place here. For instance, he had a television set on one side of the room.

Mark flicked it on and slid the disk in the player while Jack moved two office chairs so they were facing the screen. They both took a seat as the disk began to play.

At first, all they could see was static. Then a click, and suddenly all Mark could see was a profile of Jack's face.

The Jack on the screen was smiling, and took a step back as the camera began to play. Wait - it wasn't Jack. Mark could see that clearly from the person's veins that could be seen on his neck or wrists. Jack, no matter how hard it took to make him look human, would never be able to mimic human blood streams. This person was human. This had to be Sean McLoughlin.

Sean beamed at the camera, shuffling through some note piles on screen. Behind him, Mark could identify a lab of some sorts. It was all high tech, everything an engineer like Mark could only dream of. A little off to Sean's left, Mark spotted a glass dome with green energy swirling inside it.

"Okay," Sean said finally. He was still grinning and acted with barely constrained excitement. "Listen, I don't know who's watching this, but I don't care! I just hope someone is hear to listen!" He had the same voice as Jack, which didn't surprise Mark much at all.

"I've made a huge discovery," Sean continued. "I figured out a way to transfer human emotions into our androids! I know that sounds ridiculous, but listen for a minute." He shuffled through the papers. "We've already done that very thing; just not on such an extravagant level! We've programmed our robots to be obedient, why can't we do the same with the other emotions?" He paused. "Well, obedience isn't technically an emotion... Anyways, it can happen! Here, this is how-"

He proceeds on a long explanation including equations and hypotheses and objects that Mark has never heard of. Mark almost reaches for a notebook to write this all down himself, before reminding himself he has it in video form.

After the end of his long explanation, Sean leans forward on the desk, a tired smile still gracing his lips. "And that's only half of it. I still need a robot, and a source where these emotions will he drained out of." He paused, suddenly distressed. "I'll get back to you on that."

Then he reaches for the camera and cuts the feed.

Mark almost begins to reach for the player, thinking the video is over, until the snow on screen cuts back into video. It's Sean again, this time with an endoskeleton of an android sitting next to him.

"This will harbor the emotions," Sean points out. "It's really simple, just a normal companion bot. But when you get to the head," he gestures to the metal skull. "That's where it'll get complicated. There has to be a place where the chips need to be, similar to the memory chips, and be processed through the rest of the body. Like a human, the body will react to the emotions. Upturned eyebrows for concern, clasped hands for nervousness, you get what I'm saying. And I've found the perfect source," He paused, a glint in his eyes. "Me."

The video cuts again, and Mark can feel Jack reach over to grasp his arm. Mark responds by linking their hands together. He's feeling uneasy about this, too.

The video cuts again to another scene. Mark immediately notices a change in Sean's demeanor. He looks paler, his eyes a little less bright, but he's smiling, obviously excited.

He holds out a chip that Mark recognizes. "This is the very first chip I produced. Happiness. Let's test it."

The endoskeleton sat near him again, this time with a layer of rubber skin over it, though not sculpted to show a face yet. Sean reached into it's head with the chip in his hand and inserts it somewhere in the head, before backing away and pressing something on the nape of the neck.

It's somehow more terrifying to see a faceless humanoid than it is to see the endoskeleton. At least you know what the endoskeleton is made of; with the layer of smooth rubber, it looks like it could be anything hiding under the skin.

The faceless humanoid slowly came to life. Its head lifted and its joints slowly moved, stretched, as if waking from a long nap. Sean moved around it, hands clasped together, an apprehensive but curious expression on his face.

"Hey there," Sean cooed after a moment. "How are ya feeling?"

The robot looked down at itself. "I feel different. But good. Good different." It spoke in a voice similar to Sean's - similar to Jack's.

Sean smiled. "Yes, yes, that's called happiness."

The robot stretched its fingers. "Hap...happy...happiness." It looked up at Sean with its blank face. "I feel happiness."

Sean beamed like a proud father. "Yes! Yes, excellent!" The he ran towards the camera, nearly tripping in his hurry to stop the recording.

It was white snow again, until it snapped back into focus. Sean, holding another chip. Explaining how this one was sadness. The faceless humanoid sitting next to him again. He proceeded the test the emotion, just like in the previous clip.

This repeated for a while. Sean reappearing with a new emotion chip to test it out; it always working in the end.

The only thing Mark realized was different in between each clips was Sean's appearance. He would always look paler, the blue veins in his neck and wrists becoming more prominent. Bags started to form under his eyes. Sean was thin to begin with, but after getting through nearly half the emotions Mark remembers seeing, he looks half his original weight.

At first Mark thinks Sean must be ignoring his basic human needs. He's seen it before, engineers and scientists who think they're on the brink of discovery and neglecting their needs; either dying or being hospitalized before they even reach their goal.

His theory is torn apart when Sean finishes making each emotion, and the disk rolls into the last clip.

Sean looked completely destroyed. He looked tired, weak, pale, fragile. Mark noticed a cane leaning against the desk he sat at. A box of tissues on his right.

Behind Sean, the finished version of Jack stood with his back against the wall. It was a near perfect replica of Sean himself - well, before he started to look sickly.

"I...may have miscalculated the toll this would take on me," Sean started, with a humorless laugh. "I finished this project. The perfect human robot is stood behind me. As you can see, we're twins." Another dry laugh, breaking off into coughing fits. Sean grabs a tissue and holds it to his mouth until the coughing dies away. He sets it beside him. It's stained red.

"I know this is going to sound incredibly narcissistic of me, maybe even selfish," Sean said. "But I want to continue living, in a way, after I pass, which I know will be soon. Jack here will do it for me." He smiled. "Whoever watches this, if anyone ever does, I hope Jack is in tact. I know he'll be alone and confused since I took his memory chips out-" He picks up a couple chips on the table. "I programmed him to feel grief. He got attached to me, as I to him." He sighed. "At least he has the luxury to simply forget it all. Humans….not so much." He shakes his head, returning his gaze to the camera.

"Whoever this is, please take care of Jack. He has so much worth to him. He's an android able to feel. Something humans have only dreamed of accomplishing." He paused again, his face twisting as if about to fall into another coughing fit. Sean shakes it away. "I'm sorry I'm not there, Jack. But hopefully whoever you find, they'll take care of you, like I did." He turned to look at Jack up against the wall. "I'm putting this into your head, in hopes someone will find it. Then I'm going to leave." He looked back at the camera. "Don't search for me. By the time you do, I might be six feet underground." He gives a humorless smile, before standing and grabbing the cane. He hobbled his way up to the camera before hitting the record button the last time.

Neither Mark nor Jack moves as the video cuts back to static. This time, however, the static doesn't end.

Mark can't quite believe what he saw. Whatever he was expecting, it wasn't that. Sean McLoughlin was young, too young, around Mark's age. By the end of the video clips he could've been eighty years old. Those experiments drained the life out of him. The life that was now in Jack.

Jack's hand was still clutching Mark's, who now realized the android was shaking. Mark wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulders and pulled him close.

Jack hung on tightly with shaking fists, as if afraid that Mark would disappear.

"I'm sorry," Mark could only think to say.

“Atleast I know what happened,” Jack replied solemnly.

“It’s okay to be upset,” Mark said.

“No - no, it’s not,” Jack argued. “It’s not okay to feel upset. It’s not okay to feel happy. It’s not okay to feel angry. _Nothing about me is okay_.”

Mark was shaking his head before Jack was finished. “No, don’t think that. You’re incredible, Jack.”

Jack refused, shaking his head. “Sean is dead because of me.”

“Sean is not dead,” Mark replied. Jack met his eyes, confused. “You are Sean, Jack. That was an empty shell that died. Everything that made Sean, Sean, makes you, you. Sean put his life into you.”

Jack sniffed, and Mark almost expected him to cry. Knowing Jack needs the comfort, Mark leans forward and presses a kiss onto Jack’s forehead.

Jack leans against Mark, resting his head in the crook of his neck. Mark’s hands lift and rubs Jack’s back soothingly. Slowly his shaking ceased.

“You’re welcome to stay with me, you know,” Mark said.

Jack sighed, his artificial breath cold against Mark’s skin. “Thank you.”

Mark relaxed in their embrace a moment, taking joy in the comfort, before reaching for the TV and turning it off. The snow cuts to black.

**Author's Note:**

> yeahh, kinda lacking in romance, i'm sorry. I kinda got distracted by the plot and focused on that instead of the romance-side of things. If I write an epilogue then that would be included. idk idk :P


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